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Marvel Comics Library - Fantastic Four 1 1961-1963 The First Family of the Marvel Age Tekst: Mark Waid Hoping to break out of a sales slump at Marvel in the early 1960s, veteran comic creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby hit on the idea of doing a super-team. Kirby, who thought super heroes were due for a revival after 15 years of being pushed aside by romance, horror, and war comics, saw it as smart business. Lee just once wanted to “do the type of story I myself would enjoy reading.” The Fantastic Four forever changed their careers, their lives, and the comic book industry. Some of the most iconic moments in Marvel history are here, starting with Reed Richards, his girlfriend Sue Storm, his best friend Ben Grimm, and her little brother Johnny Storm crash landing their rocket after it has been hit by cosmic rays and discovering they have been transformed into Mr. Fantastic, the Invisible Girl, the Thing, and the Human Torch in issue No. 1. They were emotionally complex characters, who weren’t always sure whether their powers were a benefit or burden. Stories were set in New York City, not some fictional stand-in, and Marvel heroes regularly crossed over into each other’s books. The art was dynamic and the writing conversational and engaging. Lee and Kirby were like the Lennon and McCartney of comic books. Where the talents of one ended and the other began was not always clear, but together one plus one equaled three. Collected here are the first 20 issues reproduced from the most pristine, pedigreed original comics, which were cracked open and photographed in close collaboration with Marvel and the Certified Guaranty Company. Featured alongside the comics are an in-depth essay by acclaimed Marvel writer Mark Waid and original art, photographs, and other rarities. Welcome true believers to the Marvel Age of Comics. © 2026 MARVEL

Marvel Comics Library - Avengers 1 1963-1965 Earth’s Mightiest Heroes Tekst: Kurt Busiek By early 1963 the foundations of the Marvel Universe had been laid. Following the introduction of the Fantastic Four in 1961 came the amazing (Spider-Man), the astonishing (Ant-Man), the strange (Doctor, that is), the incredible (Hulk), the invincible (Iron Man) and the mighty (Thor). Still, Marvel editor in chief Stan Lee realized something was missing. “I was writing these characters and I thought it would fun to put them together in a team,” he recalled. So Lee and artist Jack Kirby assembled Iron Man, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Thor, and the Hulk to create the Avengers. Right away it was clear this team was different. If the Fantastic Four were family, then the Avengers were the co-workers you didn’t choose. Not everyone got along—the Hulk fought with everyone—but working together they could defeat the baddest of Marvel’s bad guys, like Loki, Kang the Conqueror, the Masters of Evil, and Immortus. The lineup was ever changing: The Hulk departed, Captain America joined, and Ant-Man grew up to become Giant-Man. Then, remarkably, villains Hawkeye, Quicksilver, and the Scarlet Witch became heroes—and Avengers—and the group’s founding members shockingly departed, leaving Captain America to lead the newly-minted heroes. Relive the classic early adventures of Avengers Nos. 1–20 now available as a compact trade edition. The most pristine pedigreed comics have been cracked open and photographed for reproduction in close collaboration with Marvel and the Certified Guaranty Company. Accompanying the stories are an in-depth history by the Eisner Award-winning writer Kurt Busiek that’s illustrated with original art, little-seen photographs, and rare documents. This mighty collection about Earth’s Mightiest Heroes is worthy of Tony Stark’s library—or yours. © 2026 MARVEL

When Marvel publisher Martin Goodman asked Stan Lee to deliver another new team book for his line of comics, he had no idea he’d be getting something like The X-Men. In fact, nobody could have imagined the extraordinary phenomenon the X-Men would eventually grow into―not Goodman, not Lee, not even the forward-thinking futurist Jack Kirby. What they started out as was a charming, ragtag team of misfits, devised by Lee and Kirby to be mutants―youngsters born with “X-tra” powers thrust upon them not by accidentally crossing paths with cosmic rays or a nuclear blast, but by the fate of birth―led by a no-nonsense professor who trained them to become heroes that could protect the world from menaces, mutant and otherwise. The first years of storytelling laid the foundation for much of what has put the X-Men at the crossroads of comics and popular culture: Hounded by a public that fears and misunderstands them, mutantkind find themselves at the heart of their own civil rights struggle; Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Angel, Beast, and Iceman found safety amongst themselves despite the challenges that set them apart from others in society; and Professor Xavier lined up against his ideological foe, Magneto, who had assembled a Brotherhood of Evil Mutants to take the fight for their self-preservation directly to humankind. Along the way, Lee and Kirby―who were on fire taking comics into the Marvel Age―introduced a menagerie of villains and supporting characters that would become mainstays of Marvel and its lore: the super-powered siblings Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch; the formidable Blob; the unstoppable Juggernaut; the jungle dweller from the Savage Land, Ka-Zar; the demigod from the stars, the Stranger; and Bolivar Trask and his army of mutant-hunting Sentinels. And as Lee and Kirby gave way to new talents so they could move on to new corners of the Marvel Universe, Atlas era art veteran Werner Roth teamed with writing newcomer and future X-Men legend Roy Thomas to begin their long run on the title. This edition features the first 21 stories of our favorite oddball super heroes from 1963 to 1966. The most pristine, pedigreed comics have been cracked open and photographed for reproduction in close collaboration with Marvel and the Certified Guaranty Company. Each page has been photographed as printed more than half a century ago, then digitally remastered using modern retouching techniques to correct problems with the era’s inexpensive, imperfect printing―as if hot off of a world-class 1960s printing press. In addition to these seminal tales are an original foreword by modern X-Men mastermind Chris Claremont, reliving the heyday of Lee and Kirby’s foundational years, and an in-depth essay by X-Men writer Fabian Nicieza, alongside original art, photographs, and memorabilia from the early years of X.